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by wandering_gypsy_feet



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24547294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandering_gypsy_feet/pseuds/wandering_gypsy_feet
Summary: Esme Shelby lived in dread of the day that they would come back. For her, her children, her sons. Because one never truly got to leave the Peaky Blinders.A future one-shot, imagining what it would for the Blinders to recall Esme Shelby and her children.
Relationships: Esme Shelby/John Shelby
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





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**Author's Note:**

> my first peaky fic! I'll post the timeline below along with respective ages to clarify - my best stab at the never truly clarified line of John including dates, names, and destinies. this will likely remain a strict one-shot.

1911 - John and Martha Shelby marry, at age 16

1912 - daughter Katie is born

1913 - son John Jr (Johnny) is born

1914 - John Sr goes to war, leaving behind his pregnant wife

1915 - Twins Elijah and Elsie are born, Martha Shelby dies in childbirth, age 20

1919 - series begin with John aged 24 (children are 7, 6, and 4 respectively)

1920 - John and Esme Shelby are both married, aged 25

1921 - son Roland is born

1923 - daughter Tillie is born

1925 - son Clyde is born

1926 - John is killed. (esme is 31, children are 14, 13, 11, 5, 3, and 1)

interlude

1939 - WW2 threatens. (esme is 44, katie 27, johnny 26, twins 24, roland 18, tillie 16 and clyde 14. Finn Shelby is 31, Karl Throne is 19, and Charlie Shelby is 17.) 

* * *

It was the sound of a car up the drive that got her attention. No one here drove cars. It was them, the horses, the wagons. No gypsy could afford a car, not during these times. But Esme knew who could. And she knew why they'd be here. 

She straightened up over the fire, watching the space between the trees. Around her, the children were already clamoring about the new arrival, running back and shouting the news to the camp. Three men, in a nice car. Esme's hands shook as she brushed the soot and ash off them. 

Katie came across the clearing, worry evident on her face. Esme had seen a photo of John's first wife, one that had been taken at John's first wedding. Katie was older now than Martha had ever been, but she looked just like her mother. She was a fine woman and wife now, with a baby on her hip and one due a few months from now. 

"Where's Johnny?" Esme asked lowly and Katie's eyes also didn't leave the gap between trees. 

"All the boys are helping Felix re-shoe his horse. If I know them, they're a few pints deep now." Katie shifted her son so he sat higher on her rounded belly. 

"Elsie?" 

"If I know her, kissing some Fury boy." 

"Tillie!" Esme said sharply as the rumble of the engine grew to a loud rumble. A slightly bemused girl appeared from the wagon, her long, dark curls tumbling messily around her face. 

"What?" she'd grabbed some fabric and a needle to give the impression that she'd been doing something, but Esme knew the sleepy look in her daughter's eyes. She'd been napping. Before Esme could say anything, Tillie clearly heard the shouts of the kids, her eyes widening. 

The sleek frame of the car appeared in the clearing, black and low to the ground, the rims bone white. Everything on it gleamed, so brightly that Esme could see her reflection. She looked like a frightened old woman. She hated it. She drew herself up to her full height, to face the men who got out. 

If she didn't know their faces, she'd know them by their suits and hats. Richly cut, with gold gleaming from their pockets and on their fingers. And there, in the brim of their caps, was the unmistakable glint of a razor. They stood in the damp grass, staring at her. She stared back, finding herself unable to say a word, Tillie on one side and Katie on the other. 

"Hullo Esme. Hullo Katie." the man in the middle had a tiny crooked smile, taller and older than the other two. "And you must be Tillie. I haven't seen you since you were three." 

"Who are you?" Tillie lacked manners in the best of times. It seemed shock and confusion had rendered them entirely absent. 

"Family," said the boy to the left. 

"No, our family is here," Katie said sharply. "Here, not there." 

"Where?" Tillie kept looking at the men then back at her mother, dark eyes curiously. 

"Blood is blood, Katie." said the middle man and Katie sniffed, turning her nose up. 

"I'm no Shelby," she declared vehemently. "I'm a Keena." 

"I'm a Shelby," Tillie piped up and Esme turned to her daughter and spoke sharply, in Shelta. 

_"You're nothing until I say you are. Now shut your mouth and don't speak unless I tell you."_

_"No, she's right. She's a Shelby, Esme."_ grey eyes watched her face, expressionless. _"And so are her brothers."_

"You speak Shelta?" Tillie looked amazed, staring at them in awe now. 

"Of course we speak Shelta." the man to the left whistled sharply when two boys tried to climb into the car. "We were raised with Aunt Pol keeping us in line, weren't we? Now where are the boys, Esme?" 

"Karl Thorne, I brought you into this world and I will take you back out," she threatened him and saw brief amusement flash through his eyes. "And Finn Shelby, I watched you drink your first whiskey and set your broken arm when you got thrown off that blasted horse. You don't scare me!" 

"We're not trying to scare you. Can't kin speak to kin?" Finn briefly reached down and glanced at a golden pocket watch. 

"Not my sons." Esme folded her arms. 

The man to the right had been silent this whole time. He hadn't introduced himself, but he didn't need to. Not with those high cheekbones and eyes so blue it almost seemed a sin. Charlie Shelby was his father Thomas, in miniature. And apparently, just as clever. He turned to the boys who were still eyeing the car. He flashed a coin at them and asked, in perfect Shelta, 

_"Where are the Shelby boys?"_

The boys hesitated, looking between the coin and Esme's furious face. In the end, it appeared their fear of her wasn't more than their desire for a treat, and one raced off while the other took the coin from Charlie. She looked back at Finn, who seemed amused, Karl, who seemed curious now at the girls in front of him, and Charlie, who showed no emotion at all. 

"What's your name?" Finn asked the little boy clinging to Katie's leg. He turned and hid his face in his mother's leg and Katie's mouth formed a wry smile. 

"His last name is Keena and that's all that matters to you," Katie declared stoutly. 

"I'm a Thorne," Karl pointed out languidly and Katie shot him a dirty look. 

"And I changed your diapers. Remember your place." 

"Why have you come?" Esme was torn between a hateful silence and her need to know why they were here for her boys. Finn exchanged a look with Karl then Charlie, who were both silent and expressionless. 

"There's going to be a war," Finn said finally, quietly. 

"We've no part in Tommy Shelby's wars, not anymore," Esme spat and Finn's eyes lingered on the ornate wagons, side by side. 

"You take Shelby company money," he said quietly. 

"Because my husband was murdered!" it had been over a decade, but Esme's wounds were still raw. The memory of John, the indignity of his death, all the pain, it came rushing back. "The least his brothers could do was send me money, while I took care of his children!" 

"And now we will take care of them," Karl stated and Esme threw him a filthy look, a curse on her lips that died when Charlie spoke. 

"It isn't our war, Aunt Esme. It's not Blinders. It's the nation's. There's going to be a war. They're going to take the men." 

"So you come for my sons?" Esme's heart was shattering. "Why, so that they can go become soldiers? Gypsies don't fight." 

"You can live in these woods, but they were born at Watery Lane." Finn's eyes went back to Katie. "You were all born in Watery Lane and you'll always be Small Heath gypsies, no matter how many Keena's you marry." 

"I won't marry a Keena. I'm going to marry a Fury," came a strong voice and the three men looked between the wagon, from between which emerged a small figure, but no less terrifying for the cold rage on her face. "And I'll never be a fucking Shelby again. Good fucking riddance, the family that left me." 

"We didn't leave you, Elsie." Finn didn't seem surprised by her appearance or her anger. "Esme asked to take you. We agreed, but there was always a time where we may need you back." 

"I won't go." Elsie spat at the car. "I've no father. No mother. No family, except the woman who raised me. Esme tells me to stay, I will." she straightened her back and glared. 

"Christ, you look like John," Finn said sadly and for a second, Elsie's face flickered. Then she gave a bark of cruel laughter. 

"Wait till you see my brother." 

"No one will tell me what's going on," Tille told her half sister and Elsie spared her but a glance. 

"Good. You should go back into the wagon." 

"I'm not a child! He was my father too!" 

"You never remembered him!" Elsie's eyes flashed. "You were a toddler when he died. I do, I remember it all. And you still have mom! I don't have anyone!" 

"Shut up Elsie. You have me, and Elijah, and Johnny." Katie turned to look at the group that was approaching them, led by the young boy Charlie had paid off. "At least, I think you do." 

"What's this ma?" Clyde, her youngest, asked her. He was the only one who seemed not to realize what was happening, not recognizing his cousins and uncle. But Johnny did, and so did Elijah, and even Roland had a look of understanding on his face. 

"What are you doing here?" Johnny demanded of Finn. His focus was on his uncle, but she saw that the others were watching their cousins, curious. 

"It's been a long time," Finn said quietly. 

"It has," spoke Elijah quietly, from beside them. Karl was staring at him in astonishment, while Finn seemed hardly able to glance at him. That made Esme's lips twitch. Let him be uncomfortable, to know what it was like to look at Elijah and only see John. His brother was named for his father, but Elijah appeared to be his double. 

"Who are these people?" Clyde looked at his mother then at Katie and Elsie, who were glaring, then at Johnny, Roland and Elijah, who seemed apprehensive, and Tillie, who seemed ready to burst with frustration. 

"Karl Thorne and Charlie Shelby, your cousins," Esme told him, "and your uncle, Finn Shelby." 

"Why have you come?" Johnny asked, moving to stand beside Katie. "I'm assuming it's not for horses and whiskey." 

"To invite you back to Watery Lane," said Finn, purposefully avoiding Esme's eyes. "There's been rumors of a war coming. Another one, like the last."

"So will they go to fight for the king George or the king Thomas?" Esme asked bitingly and it seemed like Charlie was trying very, very hard not to smile. 

"We're just trying to keep the family together." Karl checked his pocket watch, as ornate as Finn's. 

"The family that left us?" Esme no longer seemed to be able to keep her mouth shut. "The family that my husband died for? That I had to see him murdered, for the same Shelby family?" 

"Aunt Esme." Charlie had the same clipped tone as his father, one that was so polite yet cut down to the bone. "We know your grudges. We know your grievances. But it's been 13 years. And they are men." 

"Not all of them," she snapped and Clyde looked at her, anger in his eyes.

"I'm man enough ma!" 

"None of you are!" When Esme looked at her children - all her children - she still saw them as they were. Clyde's tuff of blond hair, so like John's, under a little cap. Tillie, taking her first steps on the beautiful rug in the hallway. Roland, trying to wrestle Elijah in the living room, both of them laughing. Katie and Elsie, fighting over something in the nursery. And Johnny, following after his father, endlessly, in that great big house. 

They would always be her children. 

But now Katie was a fine wife and mother to a good gypsy man. And Johnny had the same strong, broad shoulders of his father and same rough hands from working with horses. Elsie would be a blushing bride here soon enough. And Elijah had the respect of every family that came to the fair. Roland was settling down from his wild years, no longer so hot headed. But Tillie and Clyde, with their young, sweet faces. They were still her babies. 

"Esme." Johnny came over and took her hands; she blinked furiously to stop tears from falling. "Esme, you're our mother. You took us in. You brought us here, you raised us, you taught us everything." 

"If you go back there--" her voice cracked with fear. "Johnny, I...." 

"I know." he squeezed her hands. "I know. But.... We're not our father. We've had you to raise us." 

She knew what would come next and she closed her eyes to it, waiting for the same wave of pain to roll over her like it had at the sight of John, dead on the cobblestones. She felt Johnny's hug and then Elijah coming to embrace her as well. Roland gave her a kiss on each cheek and then Clyde's thin arms came around her and she stopped. 

There was only so much she could do. 

But there _was_ something she could do. 

"No," she stated and Clyde looked ready to argue again, but Esme turned to Charlie, Finn, and Karl. "No. No. No, you want to protect the family? Then it'll be the family." 

"Esme?" Finn frowned slightly, not understanding. 

"The entire family." she turned to her girls. Katie was sighing, rubbing her belly, while Elsie looked ready to shout. Tillie still clearly had no idea what was happening. 

"I won't leave my husband," Katie declared and Esme nodded. That was her daughter's choice to make. She turned to Elsie, who sighed. 

"I only go because Esme is going. Because I will never be a Shelby again, but I won't leave my real family." her chin jutted out. "Let's go back then." Tillie opened her mouth, but Elsie elbowed her and she hushed.

Esme turned back to the boys, noting with triumph the shocked looks on their faces. "Back to Watery Lane then." 

**Author's Note:**

> hopefully you all enjoyed this - thank you!


End file.
